One Seed At A Time

scleaver — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:00:38 -0400

If you were hoping to save grandma’s heirloom tomato seeds for the next generation, get your seed packets ready. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway is preparing to store copies of crops and other plants in a tunnel deep in a permafrost mountain. So far, according to Scientific American, the vault has 268,000 samples and can hold up to 4.3 million more. They’ll start accepting donations in February 2009.

There are other seed banks around the world, but the Svalbard will out-store them all. In response to concerns over what global warming and monoculture farming practices will do to the variety of our seeds, the vault will be able to withstand any natural disaster, war, and temperature, and can store duplicates of seeds as well. Which seeds would you save, and why?

Photo from Kitchen Gardeners International.

Recycling The Looking Glass: When Garbage and Art Collide

Marcus — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

“Recycling the Looking Glass” is a traveling art exhibition that opened last month in Norway, and will be showing at various locations throughout the country through December of 2009.

The show’s concept uses trash art and found objects as its starting points, two practices in which waste and discarded objects are reused artistically as metaphor to illustrate cultural significance. “Looking Glass” takes this approach to the next level, highlighting the global issues of conservation and the importance of recycling as its primary focal points. The exhibition aims to address the social, cultural, political, environmental and economic dimensions of recycling as a worldwide dilemma, and uses its pieces to provoke thought on these critical issues.

The show opened on April 5th in Oslo to critical acclaim, much to the delight of curator Samir M’Kadmi (read his full-length Everyday Trash interview). M’Kadmi hopes the exhibition will continue to be well-received as it travels throughout Norway over the next year and a half.

“Recycling the Looking Glass” aims to be the most successful artistic exhibition to intersect the worlds of contemporary art, the environment, and global society. For more information, including the show’s touring schedule and a list of contributing artists, click here.

Want to find out more about recycling?

Recycling Tips: Did You Know You Cannot Recycle Messy Pizza Boxes?

The Benefits of Recycling: Let’s Talk Trash

Top 10 Recycling Resources

Recycled Record Snack Tray

The Benefits of Recycling Cardboard

The Art of Garbage

Reduce, Reuse… FREECYCLE

Recycle Those Electronics!

Back to Basics—RRR

Picking Up Garbage TVs and Recycling as Art

Students Recycle and Reduce Garbage: Take It Or Leave It

Knight Rider Recycled—Reborn With Green Twist!

Recycling Your Garbage: Where Does it All Go?

norway

One Seed At A Time

Recycling The Looking Glass: When Garbage and Art Collide